A/N: So I worked a fourteen hour shift yesterday in the long-term care unit. At the beginning of the day, some old guy fell asleep in his motorised wheelchair and had his hand on the joystick control thing, so he was going around in circles, fast asleep, for about ten minutes as we all went about our business. It was effin' awesome.

---

It was just before dawn when the assault team regrouped, this time at the Abu Ad Duhur Airport that the Rangers had left from hours earlier. The reports from the men of those Special Forces were scattered and terse, but all that mattered was that they knew that nothing had been done to compromise the lives of the hostages. The leaders knew that there had been an explosion, but it had nothing to do with the building where the hostages were; at one point in the early morning, the Rangers watched Jackson Rippner be interrogated through a partially covered window. Although he was bleeding badly from facial injuries and had been hit a number of times, because he still seemed to be conscious, they opted to hold off aid for the safety of the majority.

Two additional MedEvac helicopters had been added to the aviation grouping and the closest large hospital in Hamah was informed that they should expect two to six emergency patients within the next couple of hours, one of whom would most certainly be about to give birth if she hadn't already. A surgery team was standing by in the case that a caesarean section was required. The nurses and physicians in the air ambulances were preparing themselves and their work areas for everything, whether it be something as gory as performing an emergency c-section to save the baby in the event of Lisa's death or something as run-of-the-mill as tending to a gunshot wound.

There was great tension as they all started breaking into teams. A large team was staying at the airport, which was now considered the base of operations, and a small group was being sent out with the medical personnel to meet with the Rangers. The Rangers, of course, were the primary assault team in case the negotiators failed to convince the hostage-takers to release the captives; they had placed themselves in strategic positions around the town under the cover of night and were ready to move when the word was given.

At 0600 exactly, three helicopters lifted out of the airport. The two MedEvac flanked a single armed military helicopter carrying CIA negotiators and interpreters, but more familiar faces such as Keefe had been left behind at Abu Ad Duhur, believed to be more of a liability than as help in negotiations. They headed straight down to the southeast, vaguely following an unpaved road before diverting more eastward at 0613. Only four minutes later, the MedEvac choppers hovered on the ruined outskirts of the town as the negotiator-bearing helicopter moved towards the still-smoking building. Once they passed through the smoke, there was a flurry of motion and gunshots.

'Hold your fire!' came the smooth voice of the lead negotiator, speaking in Arabic. She repeated the command in Persian before continuing. 'We are here to negotiate the release of the captives!'

The firing stopped and the guards waited as the doors of the building opened and Reza's hand appeared, holding a loudspeaker. 'The time for negotiation is passed.'

The agents in the helicopter looked at each other tensely, but before they could say anything else, the guards filed back into the building and the doors closed. A voice came over the satellite connection to the Rangers.

'We're watching the situation from the ground. Negotiators, move back and prepare for landing with MedEvac. Over.'

The lead negotiator wasn't about to give up so easily, however. 'Reza, we can offer you immunity from prosecution, immunity for yourself and your men! We just want the safe release of the American prisoners!'

She was answered by a window opening slightly and yelling from the Rangers over the communication link. 'Get out of there! They have an RPG!'

The pilot immediately began changing the pitch of the rotors as the window opened more to reveal the end of the RPG-7. There was a puff of smoke as the warhead propelled forward from the launcher and the agents in the helicopter screamed as the pilot turned them as sharply as possible and they were tossed about. The warhead missed the helicopter but hit a building a little behind it on its arc down. The resulting explosion shook the aircraft and generated a moderate amount of shrapnel that broke some of the remaining windows, including one of the windows in the building where the Rippners were being held.

---

It was 5:50 in the morning when Lisa's water broke, nearly an hour and a half after the really strong contractions started. Up until that point, she'd been very quiet, but only ten minutes after the amniotic sac broke, she was trembling and throwing up bile as Jackson tried to keep her still, pressing her back against him as he brushed a hand on her thigh and used the other to hold her head to his shoulder. She had stopped responding to things around her with words, but when told to move by Anoo, she obeyed. With each contraction, she would grab and squeeze Jackson's leg as she pushed her feet along the cushions, curling her toes in pain as she screamed.

After the second scream, the doors unlocked and Reza burst in with a couple of his guards. There was a general feeling of victory for the terrorist as he smirked at the motley group: Jackson's face was still oozing with blood, one eye swollen closed; Lisa had her head thrown back against her husband's shoulder, breathing heavily and looking absolutely drained; Anoo was glaring at the man as she looked up from checking Lisa's dilation with her daughter standing behind her. He laughed for only a moment before the dull thumping of helicopters came even closer, eventually close enough to shake dust out of the ceiling. There were loud gunshots that covered Lisa's next scream, and Hediyeh came around to dab at Lisa's forehead with a wet cloth as the announcement from the negotiator drifted to their ears.

'It is amazing how one little thing can change your entire circumstance,' he said before turning, leaving his guards pointing guns at them. At his announcement to the agent, Jackson wrapped his arms around his wife and looked darkly at the guards with his good eye.

'Let us move to the basement,' said Reza when he returned, ignoring the further announcements from the negotiator before giving a curt nod to the guards, which sent them after the hostages inside the room.

Anoo had just taken Lisa into her arms to carry her down for Jackson when there was the sound of a warhead being fired. Hediyeh found her way to Jackson's arms before the explosion shook the entire house, nearly knocking Anoo and Lisa down and shattering the window next to them. Turning, Anoo avoided most of the glass, and within just a moment, the guards were shoving them harshly out of the room. Hediyeh, screaming, was pulled from Jackson and right before he was dragged out also, he noticed a person perched atop the building across the street wearing desert fatigues.

Out in the main corridor, one of the guards was yanking Anoo about by her plait, and soon she disappeared down a flight of stairs that the guards, Hediyeh, and Jackson followed down. Just as the door closed and was locked by the rear guard, there was another explosion and they could hear chunks of the door and front wall being blown across the foyer. Jackson paused to listen and was subsequently shoved down the last few stairs, landing splayed across the dirt floor before being pulled up harshly by a guard who threw him against the wall next to his wife and Hediyeh.

For a moment, Jackson wondered where Anoo had gone, and after only a moment, he got his answer. There was a heart-wrenching yell from the corner and he snapped his vision over to see Anoo on her knees, her hands shaking as she suspended them around her husband's body, which was next to Fadlallah's. Tears poured silently down her face as she took a couple of gasping breaths before pressing her face down upon his bloody chest, grabbing at the damp fabric of his clothing as she shuddered with sobs. Hediyeh cried softly beside him and he took her into his arms before taking Lisa's hand into his own, squeezing it as she had another contraction, her sobs adding to Anoo's.

At Lisa's cry, Anoo snapped up and looked at Reza, her eyes burning from her blood-covered face as she kept her grip on her husband's clothing. 'You monster. You monster!'

Reza stuck out his bottom lip, pulling a handgun from a holster at his hip. 'You hurt me, Anoo.'

She looked back down at her husband, biting her lip before bending down and kissing him l

lightly then getting to her feet and rubbing her eyes with bloody hands. With a sniffle, she turned her head quickly and looked at him with narrowed eyes. Above them, there started to be the march of troops' feet and they moved to the room where the hostages had been held. Reza looked up, and in the moment that he wasn't paying attention, Anoo launched herself at him. He was fast, however, and right before she managed to jump on top of him, he shot her in the stomach.

Hediyeh screamed as her mother hit the ground in front of Reza, struggling against Jackson's arms to try to get to her. Reza immediately turned, pointing his gun at the girl, which made her cover her mouth with her hands as tears ran down her face. Jackson dropped his chin to the top of the girl's head as he scooted closer to his wife, pulling her up against him. The Rangers obviously heard Hediyeh, however, and within moments, there was the sound of someone trying the door at the top of the stairs. There was a fleeting moment of happiness for the captives before a fire fight started above them.

'You did not think I would make it that easy, did you?' Reza hissed, rolling Anoo over with his foot and examining her bloody face coldly. 'A good number of my guards are still upstairs.'

Breathing hard, Anoo glared at him, reaching up her arms with curled fingers. Without a second thought, Reza pointed his gun directly between her eyes and pulled the trigger, not even flinching as her blood splattered all over him. Her arms dropped as her head rolled to the side, facing the three remaining captives. Lisa backed up more against Jackson, raising her arm to press a hand to Hediyeh's arm weakly. With her wrist on his arm, Jackson could feel that she was shaking even more than she had been in the upstairs room, and looking at her face, he could see that his wife was trying her best not to scream at a contraction. Assuring that Anoo was dead by kicking her, Reza took a few steps closer to them and smiled, licking some of the woman's blood off of his lips.

'Well, now that we have that done...'

He held his gun up again and aimed it at Lisa. Immediately, he squeezed the trigger, and although Jackson moved quickly to throw his arm over Lisa, the bullet just nicked his arm and hit her high on her left shoulder. Hediyeh crawled out of Jackson's lap and threw her arms around Lisa, murmuring to her as she pressed on the bloody spot that was expanding over her dress. Lisa grabbed at Jackson's shirt as he leaned in front of her, his back to Reza, her eyes wide in pain, but he was comforted by the location of the gunshot wound.

'Jackson,' she said breathily, the only thing she'd said in the last couple of hours. 'I... I have to push.'

'No, no, no,' he replied, pressing a hand to her stomach. 'Please, just wait, please...'

There was a loud gunshot and fragments of the basement door scattered down the stairs before it was kicked in by one of the Army Rangers. Reza motioned to a couple of his guards and they stepped forward hesitantly, aiming their guns at the huddled captives as the Rangers started coming down the stairs. As the Rangers came into sight, they quickly raised their guns and the first spoke.

'Put down your weapons!'

The guards on either side dropped their guns, and Jackson looked back at them as Lisa squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. He was startled to see that Reza still had his gun aimed at them and was moving back around to Anoo's body, still staring at his captives.

'I said put down your weapon!' the Ranger said, aiming his gun at Reza.

The terrorist moved under the stairs, out of the sight of the Ranger, and before the man could come around to aim again, there were three gunshots in quick succession and the Rangers stomped completely down the stairs, the leader and one of the men after him cornering Reza as the rest split themselves between the five Reza guards down in the basement and the three hostages. Lisa was taking harsh, ragged breaths under Jackson as a man with a walkie-talkie called in the MedEvacs from the outskirts of town. There was loud thumping as they landed in front of the building, and Jackson looked into the faces of the Rangers as he sat down next to Lisa. Turning, he looked at her and was startled as Hediyeh was pressing onto Lisa's side.

'She's bleeding,' the little girl said softly, taking her hand away from Lisa's right ribs, her hands covered in blood.

'She... she's been shot!' Jackson said frantically, pushing Hediyeh away as he slipped his hand behind Lisa's head and applied pressure to the wound.

Hediyeh backed into one of the Rangers and he picked her up, carrying her out of the room as her eyes stayed frozen to her dead mother. Lisa screamed over the sound of the helicopters and people running about above their heads as she pushed, making the blood from her shoulder and ribs pour out faster. Jackson was panicking, not knowing whether to encourage or discourage her in the birthing process, but soon he was pulled away from her by an Army Ranger, who held him as the medics surrounded Lisa, trying to quell her cries as they examined her. A Ranger next to Jackson was gestured to and went over to pick up Lisa, cradling her carefully in his arms, and Jackson could suddenly see that she'd also been shot in the right thigh.

'Clear a path!' screamed one of the medics as he ran up the stairs, followed by the Rangers holding Lisa and leading Jackson.

Over the Ranger's shoulder, Jackson could see Lisa's face as it contorted in pain and she screamed harder, tears pouring down her cheeks. He struggled against the man's grip to get to her and comfort her, but the man kept a good hold as they came into the foyer, weaving through the casualties of the small battle on the main floor of the house. Dust billowed around, disturbed by the air pushed down to the ground by the rotors of the choppers, but as far as he could tell, Lisa didn't even notice. They reached one of the helicopters and Lisa was handed up delicately to the battle physicians, and just as she disappeared from his vision, Jackson was helped up into the vehicle and the doors closed before they lifted off.

'The baby's already crowning,' said one of the nurses as a group of the medics worked on stopping the bleeding. 'We can't put this off without threatening the baby's life.'

Lisa screamed as a physician fished the bullet out of her side and began packing gauze in the wound. A nurse took his place by Lisa's side, applying pressure with a handful of gauze. The woman across from her had already disinfected and stitched Lisa's shoulder injury, but was pressing on it regardless as Lisa squeezed her lips together tightly and pushed, which increased the amount of blood coming out of her side.

'Good job, Lisa,' said one of the nurses who was holding Lisa's legs so that she'd have something to bear against, and additionally applying pressure to the gunshot wound on her thigh, furrowing her brow as she felt that Lisa's leg might be broken. 'Soon you'll have a little baby boy.'

Pursued by the nurse who was tending his wounds, Jackson walked over on unsteady legs to take Lisa's hand, reaching through the nurses to hold the side of her face as she sobbed. She pressed her cheek into his palm as he brushed away tears with his thumb, giving her a look of pity and support that she didn't see as she closed her eyes and pushed, biting her lip until she screamed terribly again and then laid panting with her eyebrows raised.

'Bulb syringe,' said the doctor, taking it from a nurse and dropping it out of Jackson's vision. When he could see it again, he was squirting mucous out of the syringe. 'Come on, Lisa, you've already delivered the head, you've already done the hardest part.'

'Dizzy,' murmured Lisa, still breathing heavily.

'I know,' Jackson said, turning his attention back to her, tears burning his eyes. 'I know you're tired and dizzy, Leese, but you're almost finished.'

Her head rolled out of his hand and he panicked for a moment before she pressed it to her chest and pushed with all of her energy for a long minute. The medical personnel flurried about and when Jackson looked away from Lisa, he caught the first glimpse of their son as the doctor held him up, quickly wrapping him lightly in a receiving blanket. The doctor stuck his forefinger into the baby's mouth to clear out any remaining mucous and then put him on the level of the birth canal. Even over the thudding of the rotors, Jackson and Lisa could hear their son's first squall.

'Congratulations,' said the doctor quickly, and Jackson glanced at his bloody watch on his wife's wrist: 6:43.

The doctor continued suctioning the baby's nostrils and mouth as he cried, and Jackson tried to look down at him before Lisa squeezed lightly at his hand. Her breathing was slowing down, and before Jackson could respond to her, he'd been pushed out of the way by the medical personnel and led to the other stretcher, where one of the Rangers stood by him, watching Lisa with concern. Jackson had no idea what was going on, but was too worried to fight with the medics about it. After a couple of minutes, one of the nurses took the baby to his stretcher and swaddled him in a thick blanket before looking at Jackson.

'Don't give him to me, give him to Lisa,' Jackson said with wide eyes.

She gave him a sad look. 'Do you know how to hold a baby, Mr Rippner?'

Turning his head, he looked over at Lisa's stretcher again, but she was completely covered by medics. 'What's happening? Why can't she hold him?'

'Please, Mr Rippner,' said the nurse, and Jackson was startled as she choked up a little, taking the baby and pressing him against the centre of Jackson's chest. 'Wrap your arms around him and make sure to keep him warm.'

Numbly, Jackson slipped his arm under the baby's bottom, supporting him in his hand as he pressed the other hand to his son's back, his thumb and forefinger holding the back of his head. The nurse picked up a small, knit cap from the stretcher and slipped it onto the baby's head before going back to Lisa. Through the cockpit windshield, Jackson could see the outskirts of Hamah as they began to descend towards the hospital. He felt their son yawn against his chest and looked down at him blankly, not exactly sure what to do with him.

The helicopter jarred as they landed on the heliport of the Khan el Qusayr, and in an instant, the doors were thrown open and the medics began pulling Lisa's stretcher out onto the roof. Jackson stood and walked over but was held back until Lisa was already being wheeled away, her eyes closed and nurse respirating her with a hand pump.